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How to > Mobile Cheat Prevention > Prevent Injection Attacks > How to Prevent Dynamic Hooking of Android Apps

How to Prevent Dynamic Hooking of Android Apps

Last updated November 9, 2023 by Appdome

Learn to Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks in Android apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What is Hooking?

A hook is a means of executing custom code (function) either before, after, or instead of existing code. For example, a function may be written to “hook” into the login process of a mobile application and alter the authentication workflow, by requesting users to enter their social security number or re-type their password. Fraudsters use dynamic instrumentation toolkits such as Frida to hook into the application, interact with the running processes, and inject their own JavaScript code, thus replacing the original code.

How does Appdome Prevent Hooking of Android Apps?

Appdome’s Prevent Hooking Frameworks feature detects and prevents common hooking methods and frameworks that attempt to intercept function/method calls, messages, or API calls and then modify their instructions or output. Appdome also detects any code injected into the app’s process memory and prevents it from running.

Prerequisites for Using Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks , you’ll need:

Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks on Android apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these simple steps to create self-defending Android Apps that Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks without an SDK or gateway:

  1. Upload the Mobile App to Appdome.

    1. Upload an app to Appdome’s Mobile App Security Build System

    2. Upload Method: Appdome Console or DEV-API
    3. Android Formats: .apk or .aab
    4. Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks Compatible With: Java, JS, C++, C#, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other Android apps

  2. Build the feature: Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks.

    1. Building Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks feature as shown below:
        2. fusion set that contains Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks feature
        Note: Naming the Fusion Set to correspond to the protection(s) selected is for illustration purposes only (not required).

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2.1-2.2.2 of this article, Building the Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks feature via Appdome Console, to add the Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks feature to this Fusion Set.

      3. Open the Fusion Set Detail Summary by clicking the “...” symbol on the far-right corner of the Fusion Set, as shown in Figure 1 above, and get the Fusion Set ID from the Fusion Set Detail Summary (as shown below): fusion Set Detail Summary image

        Figure 2: Fusion Set Detail Summary
        Note: Annotating the Fusion Set to identify the protection(s) selected is optional only (not mandatory).

      4. Follow the instructions below to use the Fusion Set ID inside any standard mobile DevOps or CI/CD toolkit like Bitrise, App Center, Jenkins, Travis, Team City, Cirlce CI or other system:
        1. Build an API for the app – for instructions, see the tasks under Appdome API Reference Guide
        2. Look for sample APIs in Appdome’s GitHub Repository

    2. Building the Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks feature via Appdome Console

      To build the Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Anti Fraud Tab > Mobile Cheat Prevention section.

      2. When you enable Prevent Code Injection you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks

        Fusion Set applied Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks

        Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks protection

      3. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).
    Congratulations!  The Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks protection is now added to the mobile app

Using Appdome, there are no development or coding prerequisites to build secured Android Apps by using Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks. There is no SDK and no library to code or implement in the app and no gateway to deploy in your network. All protections are built into each app and the resulting app is self-defending and self-protecting.

Releasing and Publishing Mobile Apps with Prevent Hooking and Hooking Frameworks

After successfully securing your app by using Appdome, there are several available options to complete your project, depending on your app lifecycle or workflow. These include:

If you have any questions, please send them our way at support.appdome.com or via the chat window on the Appdome platform.

Thank you!

Thanks for visiting Appdome! Our mission is to secure every app on the planet by making mobile app security easy. We hope we’re living up to the mission with your project.

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